6 Ways a Trump Presidency Could Affect Your Personal Finances

No matter if you’re celebrating or protesting Donald Trump's victory, here are six key areas where the President-elect could change your personal finances. You'll get solid advice to manage your money no matter what’s around the corner.

This year’s presidential election wasn’t the first contentious campaign in American history, nor will it be the last.

For better or for worse, Donald Trump’s surprise presidential victory brings four years of uncertainty. No matter if you’re celebrating or protesting, in this post I’ll cover six key areas where the President-elect could change your personal finances and offer advice to manage your money no matter what’s around the corner.

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6 Ways a Trump Presidency Could Affect Your Personal Finances

Many say Trump has done a great job growing his personal wealth, but whether he can make the American economy more prosperous remains to be seen. From the promises made during the campaign and post-election, here are six ways his presidency could affect your finances:

1. Interest Rates

Before the election, there was speculation that the U.S. Federal Reserve would raise interest rates slightly because the economy is slowly getting stronger. But now the Fed’s not sure what Trump’s policies will be.

Economic uncertainty means that rates probably won’t budge in the short term or perhaps for the next year or two. That means the variable interest rates you’re paying on certain types of debt, like credit cards, lines of credit, and adjustable-rate mortgages won’t go up any time soon.

Trump tends to favor deregulation, which could allow consumers more access to credit. So, if you’re in the market to buy a home or to finance a business startup in the next few years, it could be easier. However, economists warn that less regulation could lead us back to those loose lending practices that blew up by 2008 and caused the last recession.

Interestingly, a few days ago Trump said that he likes certain parts of Obamacare. These include key aspects of the law, such as the ban on denying coverage for pre-existing medical conditions, the ban on lifetime coverage caps, and allowing young people to stay on their parents’ health plans until age 26.

It’s important to understand that the ACA is a massive piece of legislation with more than 10,000 pages that contain more than 11 million words. Just for contrast, my book, Money Girl’s Smart Moves to Grow Rich, is about 250 pages and 60,000 words.

The law actually includes a total of 109 regulations, and some of them have nothing to do with healthcare or insurance. There’s no button that Trump or any lawmaker can push to instantly reverse Obamacare. Changing legislation as big and complicated as the ACA is a major undertaking that will take time.

Health insurance is already locked in for 2017 because insurers set prices and product offerings early each year for the following year. Disrupting consumer options for policies they’ve already purchased seems highly unlikely.

A sudden interruption of coverage would put the entire industry in a tailspin and cause serious backlash for Trump. The new administration and Congress won’t want tens of millions of uninsured and angry Americans causing an uproar.

Previous attempts to repeal Obamacare proposed a multi-year transition for certain aspects of the law. My take is that a Trump-approved phase out—including any changes to subsidies that have made premiums more affordable for millions of consumers—wouldn’t begin until 2018 at the earliest.

Open enrollment for 2017 health coverage began on November 1 and ends January 31, 2017. If you don’t have coverage, the Obamacare penalty will still be in effect until it's legally changed.

Protecting you and your family from huge, unexpected medical bills if you get into an accident or get sick has nothing to do with politics. Having health insurance is an essential part of managing financial risk and having peace of mind that you can handle any health crisis that you might face in the future.

So if you need coverage, shop health insurance plans carefully, use your insurance as you need it, and don’t worry about what may happen down the road.